Excerpt from Implementation of P. L. 100-656, the Business Opportunity Development Reform Act of 1988 and Final Report of the Commission on Minority Business Development: Hearing Before the Committee on Small Business, United States Senate, One Hundred Third Congress, Second Session Sba officials also told us last week that they still do not have any estimates of the time or total cost to complete the redesign of the 8(a) management information system. Sba estimates that as of June 1994 it had spent $1 million on the redesign effort. In fiscal year 1994, sba had targeted in discretionary funds to complete the redesign effort. However, was repro grammed to meet unanticipated salary and benefit requirements throughout sba. Of the remaining that could be spent on the redesign effort, only had been expended as of June 1994. Last September, the sba Administrator estimated that it would take sba up to 2 years to complete the redesign of the manage ment information system. However, because of the problems that sba continues to experience in its development efforts and the lim ited funding that it has committed to the redesign effort in fiscal year 1994, we are concerned that the kinds of delays experienced in the past will continue in the future. In summary, Mr. Chairman, while sba has made some progress in improving aspects of the 8(a) program, it still is not in a position to assess the program's success in developing minority-owned busi nesses that can compete on equal bases in the mainstream of the Nation's economy. The value of 8(a) contracts awarded competi tively increased in fiscal year 1992, but there has been no improve ment over the past 5 to 6 years in the dispersion of contracts among 8(e) firms. In addition, while sba has over the past few years consistently reviewed firms' new and revised business plans, program managers here in Washington cannot assess whether the types of assistance it provides is consistent with the developmental needs of firms over time, because sba does not know whether firms are meeting their business goals. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.